LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES

(By "Unionist.") ITEMS OF INTEREST. In conformity trilli the recommendation^ of the recent Labour Conference in Auckland, a meeting has been convened by the Wellington Trades' Council, for the establishment of a branch of the New Zealand Labour Party in Wellington. The meeting is to be held next week. Approval of the platform adopted by the conference and adherence to the recommendation of conference anent constitution of branches are made necessary qualifications for membership to the proposed branch. It is proposed to elect officers and committee pro tern., at the meeting, and to afterwards hold another meeting for adoption of rules and election of permanent officers. The annual meeting of the Wellington | Bookbinders' and Paper Rulers' Union was held last week. The secretary's report presented to the meeting, stated that the expenditure for the past year was the heaviest on record, mainly on account of exceptional out of work payments to unemployed members. During the year tho sum of v £l29 -was paid away | in unemployed benefit. Retrenchment on I the part of tho Government in its printj ing office, and the general depression during the period is stated to have been responsible for the number of members iinemployed, who were entitled to the benefits provided in that direction by the organisation. According to tho report, however, the finances of the union, are still in a sound position. The amount of assets over liabilities totals £239 14s lOd. Officers for the ensuing year were elected as follows: — President, Mr. W- Naughton; secretary, Mr. E. J. C. Wiffih; treasurer, S. J. Tathain; and committee, Messrs. A. Burnett, D. Scott, and G. Chapman; delegates to the Trades' Council, Messrs. W. Naughton and D. M'Hutchison. What must constitute a record in local trace union officialdom has been established by the unopposed return of Mr. W. Naughton as president of the Bookbinders' Union. Mr. Naughton enters upon his seventeenth consedutive year of office as president. His official colleague, Mr. Wiflin, who is again returned unopposed to the secretaryship of the union, has held that office continuously for the past seven years. A meeting of the local Cooks and Waiters' Union was held during the week to consider what evidence should be tendered on behalf of the union, in connection with the Amending Shops and Offices Bill, shortly to be dealt with by the Labour Bills Committee of the House. The Bill proposes to fix a maximum working week ot 60 hours for males and of 56 hour's for females employed in the hotels and restaurants throughout the Dominion. A resolution generally approving of the main provisions of the proposed measure was carried, and the union's representatives were instructed to tender evidence in support of the "Bill if called on. The secretary reported to the meeting that for the month of August 49 new members had been admitted, and that the total receipts from all sources for the past four months were approximately ±)134. For the same period the expenditure, including Arbitration Court expenses, totalled roughly £123. A sum of £2 2s was donated to the Trades' Council towards the celebration of Labour Day next month. The meeting also voted one guinea towards the election expenses of the Labour candidates for the City Council vacancies. According to the annual report on strikes and lock-outs in the German Empire in 1909, recently issued by the Imperial Statistical Office, the number of labour disputes which came to an end in the year was 1652 (1537 strikes and 115 lock-outs), as compared with 1524 in the preceding year. The number of workpeople on strike or locked-out was 119,849, but in addition 11,034 were thrown out of work as a consequence of the disputes , giving an aggregate of 130,883 persons directly or indirectly affected by the disputes of 1909, compared with 119,781 in 1908. Nearly half the disputes, viz., 781 out of 1652, ended in favour of the employers, 292 in favour of tho workpeople, while the remaining 579 were compromised. The British Labour Commission which recently visited Germany reports that "the organisation of labour in trade unions is proceeding rapidly, and is characterised by tlic same thoroughness and plan. The main body of German trade unionists now numbers about two million persons, organised generally on the plan of divisions according to the sort of material manipulated. There is more central control than in Great Britain, and an inclusion in each union of all branches of a trade, there is therefore little or none of that quarrelling about lines of demarcation which has discredited and weakened British trade unionism." There are d 0 electorates in tne NewSouth Wales Legislative Assembly, and 90 Laboui candidates are in the lield for the general election to be heid on 14th October next. Following is the platform on which me Laboux Party are appealing to the electors for Support : Abolition of the Legislacive Council and the substitution therefor of the Initiative and Referendum. Electoral reform to provide proper machinery i'oi the true representation of the people m Parliament." Cessation of further sales of Crown Lands. A proper system of Closer Settlement. Water Conservation and Irrigation. Restriction of Pudlic Borrowing. State Bank. Graduated Land Tax. Free Education. — Secondary, Technical, University. Re-enactment of the Industrial Arbitration Act. The Zone system ot Railway Fares and Freights. Regulation ot Hours of Labour. Workers' Compensation. Nationalisntion of Coal Mines. Mr. M'Gowen, Labour Leader predicts a gain of 20 seeats at the elections. There are 37 Labour members in the New Soutn Wales Assembly, consisting of 9U members. Tainters in Victoria have secured a wages board award which provides for a working week oi 44 hours. It comes into force next month. The minimum «ateo awarded are as follows: — Grainei"s, painters, paperhangers, and signwriters, Is 3d per hour, or 55s per week of 44 hou« The Hon. W. M. Hughes will be Act-ing-Federal Premier during Mr. Fisher's absence in South Africa. "Here was -a man with a marvellous head on a weak, poor body, fighting — not eight hours a day, but eighteen — in the interest of the workers — a man whom no money could buy, and whose proper worth would never be realised until he had passed away from us." — Senator Gardiner in Federal Attorney-General Hughes. Mr. Justice Burnside made the following remarks at *the Arbitration, Court, Perth, when the question of- a living wage for workers was under discussion :—"I: — "I find in ascertaining what a living wage ought to be on» must take into account reasonable provision for the uncertainty of life. 1 would like to see the system of assurance more frequent than it is amongst what I call tho working classes. I very rarely hear any man saying in the box that he nas to pay so much a weeK for life assurance Appurently whtni a working man dies his family have to start afresh on their own account."